Hamilton escapes Bahrain shunt

Championship leader has major off in the Middle East

Last updated: 5th April 2008

lewis hamilton mclaren bahrain gp practice accident 4/4/2008

Hamilton: shunt

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Lewis Hamilton has escaped uninjured after suffering a major accident during the second practice session for Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix.

With just over nine minutes remaining at the Sakhir circuit, the McLaren-Mercedes driver appeared to lose traction coming out of turn seven, which led to him locking up, sliding across a run-off area and slamming his car sideways into a tyre wall.

Several marshals behind the tyre wall ducked for cover as the 23-year-old impacted with considerable force.

After composing himself, Hamilton emerged from his badly-damaged car before taking a look at the rear end - suggesting that was from where his problem stemmed.

The championship leader was then taken back to the McLaren garage on a motorbike, while his car was craned onto the back of a truck and returned to the pits for repairs.

Fortunately Hamilton was unharmed, unlike following qualifying at last year's European Grand Prix when he ploughed nose first into a tyre wall at the Nurburgring, suffering severely bruised ribs.

Massa on top

Hamilton nevertheless ended the 90-minute session with the fourth-quickest time, albeit almost 1.5 slower than pacesetter Felipe Massa.

Massa, who has come in for criticism having failed to score points at the opening two races of the season, was also quickest in the morning session.

The Brazilian, who spun his Ferrari out of second place in the Malaysian Grand Prix 12 days ago, put in a flawless performance, with his best lap time being one minute 31.240 seconds - a second quicker than his pole position lap of 12 months ago.

Massa went on to score a lights-to-flag victory in last year's race and his form during Friday's practice sessions suggests there is every prospect he can score a much-needed repeat.

His team-mate, world champion Kimi Raikkonen, was almost a second slower, with Hamilton's team-mate Heikki Kovalainen third fastest.

BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica posted the fifth quickest lap, followed by Williams driver Nico Rosberg, Red Bull's David Coulthard, the second Williams of Kazuki Nakajima, Toro Rosso's Sebastien Bourdais and the Renault of Nelson Piquet.

Jenson Button was 11th fastest for Honda, with Super Aguri's Anthony Davidson bringing up the rear over four seconds down.

Bahrain Grand Prix - Practice session two:

1. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 1 min 31.420 secs
2. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 1:32.327
3. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) McLaren 1:32.752
4. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 1:32.847
5. Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber 1:32.915
6. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams - Toyota 1:33.022
7. David Coulthard (Britain) RedBull - Renault 1:33.048
8. Kazuki Nakajima (Japan) Williams - Toyota 1:33.098
9. Sebastien Bourdais (France) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1:33.197
10. Nelsinho Piquet (Brazil) Renault 1:33.247
11. Jenson Button (Britain) Honda 1:33.710
12. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Renault 1:33.755
13. Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull - Renault 1:33.782
14. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota 1:33.822
15. Timo Glock (Germany) Toyota 1:33.856
16. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Honda 1:33.966
17. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber 1:34.023
18. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Force India - Ferrari 1:34.388
19. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Force India - Ferrari 1:34.405
20. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1:34.787
21. Takuma Sato (Japan) Super Aguri - Honda 1:35.288
22. Anthony Davidson (Britain) Super Aguri - Honda 1:35.712